Mollie & List
I contacted Loretta McKinney who is Asst. Chief Deputy Clerk of the Circuit County Court Cook Co. She states that even if someone lived in another county.... my Great-aunt was born & lived her entire life in Chicago until her commitment ....If they were sent to Kankakee ( or any other state hospital) that is where their records would be held.
She also said that during that time period doctors had the capability to hospitalize patients without any court proceedings.
This being said she still forwarded my email request to the Circuit Court. So we'll see where that takes me......
I Have checked for any newspaper articles about Faith, but from what I have been able to determine , She had her second child , a daughter on 11 Oct 1902 and the child died in November. Faith was hospitalized in March of 1903 at age 23. Since she had no history of mental illness before I'm lending toward her suffering from post partum depression and then the death of her daughter made her unstable enough to cause the commitment. I'm sure as a family matter it as kept quiet. Of course I'm only speculating.... terrible if that was the case. A few hormones and some other meds might have kept her from a 44 year commitment.
Joanne , Salem, Oregon